


The Knight and the Princess

by Kiraly



Series: Reypunzel AU [1]
Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: F/M, Fairy Tale Retellings, Fluff, Kissing, Reypunzel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-26
Updated: 2016-01-26
Packaged: 2018-05-16 08:46:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5822077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiraly/pseuds/Kiraly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A brave knight-errant goes in search of the beautiful princess rumored to live in a tower. A princess is startled by an unexpected visitor. Neither of them find quite what they were expecting.</p><p>Basically Rapunzel (more closely related to the original fairy tale than the Disney story, although less violent) featuring everyone's favorite long-haired braid-wearing Icelander.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Knight and the Princess

There was a tower in the clearing.

“Just like it says on the map!” the knight said. It was a good thing, too, because the map hadn’t been right about much so far. There weren’t any dragons in Dragon Gorge, and the Whistling Hills had been eerily silent. Hopefully “Damsel’s Tower” wasn’t similarly misnamed.

The knight stopped at the edge of the trees to brush some of the dust off. Despite the lack of dragons, the journey hadn’t been easy; the knight was footsore and ready to finish the quest. The tower was the last test. “This should be easy,” the knight said, “all I have to do is defeat the guard, climb the tower, and rescue the damsel. I can do that!” Talking about it wouldn’t make it happen any faster, though. _Time to go_. The knight straightened, took a deep breath, and strode toward the tower.

 

 

Princess Reypunzel stared at the clouds and wondered if the sunset would be pretty tonight. It was one of the few things that ever changed; sometimes the sky went out in a riot of orange-rose, other times it crept into blue-violet twilight without fanfare. If it was raining, the solid grey just turned darker until night set in. Today it was mostly sunny, with a few fluffy clouds scattered like sheep across the blue. Probably a good sunset, then. Something to look forward to.

Inside the tower, hardly anything ever changed. Sometimes Reypunzel shoved the furniture around or draped all the linens over the table like a tent, just for something different to look at. But inevitably, things went back to their original state. Bed on one side, table on the other, books on the shelves and clothes in the chest. Everything perfectly arranged.

The princess was so, so bored of perfection.

Outside the tower, things didn’t stay in their places. Well, the trees did, mostly, and the rocks, but the plants changed with the seasons. Clouds came and went; so did rain and sun. Sometimes an animal would come to the edge of the forest, and Reypunzel would watch, wistful, until it went away again. Once in a great while, a person came into the clearing. But that hadn’t happened for a long time.

So Princess Reypunzel was surprised when a voice broke through a half-spun daydream about riding away on a cloud.

“Greetings, fair Princess! I have come to rescue you!”

 

Reypunzel let out an undignified squawk and looked down. “Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there. I...um...hi.” There was a knight at the base of the tower, staring up at the princess with wide eyes. Reypunzel sighed. It would be nice, just once, to _not_ be a surprise. “Can I help you?”

The knight pushed back a shock of white-blond hair and squinted against the sun. “Umm...I’m looking for a damsel in distress. Someone named,” the knight consulted a scrap of parchment, “Princess Reypunzel? Only I think I might have gotten the wrong tower.” More quietly, the knight muttered, “Stupid map.”

The princess felt a surge of sympathy. This knight was pretty shabby, compared to some that had come through. No horse, no squire, just a sword and a battered chain mail tunic with a faded red cloak. The knight was smaller than usual, too, and softer-looking. Maybe this one would be worth talking to. “So what’s your name, then?” Reypunzel asked, “You look like you’ve come a long way.”

The knight inflated a little. “I am Sir Tuuri of Hotakainen, Knight Errant and Adventurer-at-Large. And who are you? No offence, but I was expecting a princess.”

The princess sighed. _Ah, well. Here it goes._ “See...the thing is...I actually...am the princess. Princess Reypunzel, at your service.”

The knight stared. Then scowled. “No you aren’t! That’s ridiculous!”

Now it was Reypunzel’s turn to glare. “Why? Who says I can’t be a princess? Give me one good reason!”

“Because you’re a _boy!”_ the knight shouted. The last word rose to a high-pitched squeak; the knight clapped a hand over his mouth.

No... _her_ mouth.

Reypunzel gaped at the knight, whose short stature and round face suddenly made a lot more sense. “Well, if a _girl_ like you can be a knight, I don’t see why I can’t be a princess.”

 

 

Sir Tuuri felt herself blushing. _Drat. I was hoping he wouldn’t notice until...well, I was hoping he wouldn’t notice._ Too late now, though.

“Look, I’m not saying you can’t be a...I just wasn’t expecting...all the stories said…”

Reypunzel sighed. “What _precisely_ did the stories say about me? Think hard.”

Tuuri frowned. “Well...they say that an old witch cursed a royal family who wronged her. They had to give up the youngest princess, who the witch locked in a tower. The princess’s hair grew so long it could touch the ground, and the witch used it as a way to get up to the tower. Now the princess waits for a hero to come defeat the witch, climb the hair to the window, and rescue her.”

Reypunzel idly twirled a strand of bright red hair. “Almost right, except for the last word. See, the witch _did_ curse my family with those exact words: she would take the youngest princess away for something that happened while the queen was with child. So everyone _assumed_ that unborn child was going to be a girl, because ‘princess’ usually means that. They filled out my birth certificate before they bothered to check, so,” he shrugged, “my official name is Princess Reypunzel. They checked everywhere, but there’s no law against having a male princess. So the witch took me away, and here I am.”

Tuuri thought about that. “Okay. I can see that. But all the stories call you a fair maiden, a beautiful damsel in distress! Why wouldn’t they tell the truth?”

The princess blushed. “Well, I guess...those things are true too. I mean, it’s not like anyone’s ever been up here except the old witch, so the maiden thing...ahem.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s not like I’ve had any opportunities, and anyway it’s _really_ nobody’s business—”

Sir Tuuri was blushing too now, and interrupted to save them both from further embarrassment. “Right, got it. So, if you don’t mind me asking...why are you still up there, if your hair’s long enough to reach the ground? Can’t you just climb down?”

“Oh, no,” Reypunzel said, shaking his head. “It’s not safe. The old witch—”

“Of course! How could I forget about the old witch?” Tuuri said. “Where is she? I’ll defeat her and rescue you!”

“Well…” Reypunzel leaned on his hand and sighed, “she kind of...got bored.”

“Bored?”

“Yeah. She said watching me sit in the tower all day was worse than her henchman’s cooking, so she went off to fight trolls. She left her henchman here to watch me.”

Tuuri brightened. “Oh! Then I’ll fight the _henchman_ and rescue you!”

Reypunzel grimaced. “Umm…about that. The henchman…”

“Oh, come on!” Sir Tuuri groaned.

“He kind of left too. Said he was tired of babysitting, and I could entertain myself. Luckily the birds bring me food, or I’d be in trouble.”

Tuuri scratched her head. “Then...if no one’s guarding you, why don’t you leave?”

The princess’s eyes went wide. “Don’t you know? It’s terribly dangerous out there for someone like me! I’m not immune to the Great Sickness. If I leave this tower, I’ll get sick and die!”

_Really? What on earth has this witch been telling him? I wish she would come back so I could fight her, just for keeping this poor boy so sheltered!_

Tuuri spoke gently. “Look, about the Great Sickness...well, it’s not all that bad. I mean, you _could_ die, I guess. But only if you get too close to a Plague Troll without a mask on. There are whole orders of knights dedicated to getting rid of the Plague Trolls, though, and they’re good at it. Most non-immune people live their whole lives without seeing one, and they _don’t_ have to live in towers.”

Reypunzel frowned. “Why should I believe you? The witch told me all non-immune people had to be kept safe!”

Sir Tuuri rolled her eyes and reached into her pack. “Because _I’m_ not immune, you silly princess! Look, here’s my mask.” She pulled out a curious device and fitted it over her mouth and nose. “See?”

“Wow!” Reypunzel leaned forward to get a closer look. “Is it magic?”

Sir Tuuri shrugged. “They call it ‘medicine’, but I think magic is involved somehow. I don’t know, I’m a knight, not a mage.”

“Huh. Well, it must be nice to have one of those. You can go wherever you want!” Reypunzel slumped over the window ledge. “Maybe you can come back and tell me about your travels, sometime.”

Tuuri’s heart twinged. _Poor boy. I remember what it was like before I was old enough to leave home...the world seemed so big and so far out of reach. But maybe...I can change that, for him._

She cocked her head to the side. “I _could_ tell you all about my adventures. Or...you could join me.” She reached into her pack again...and pulled out a second mask. “Want to borrow my spare?”

 

No matter how many times he did it, watching his hair unspool down the side of the tower never got old. It was probably magic or something; he hadn’t met many people, but none of their hair had been this long. Certainly Sir Tuuri seemed impressed.

“How do you deal with all of this?” she shouted as she started to climb. “It must take you _days_ to brush it!”

The princess braced himself against the window ledge. “Nah, it’s not so bad. Sometimes the birds help if it gets too tangled.” _That’s probably magic, too. I wonder if I can do any other magic?_

The knight paused halfway up to catch her breath. “Really? Maybe that’s why it feels so nice. It’s very unfair of you to have hair that’s beautiful _and_ soft, you know. Princesses have all the luck.”

The princess felt a blush creep across his face. He wasn’t used to compliments. He wasn’t even used to _conversations._ And here he was, letting a strange girl climb into his tower. _And planning to leave with her. I’m actually...going outside._

In a matter of minutes, Sir Tuuri climbed through the window. “Whew! No wonder you don’t get many visitors. That’s quite a climb.” She leaned against the sill and looked out. “Heck of a view, though.”

“It is, isn’t it?” As far as he was concerned, the best part of the view right now was that Tuuri was sitting there drinking it in. _There are two people in this tower. And soon…there won’t be any._ “So...now that you’ve climbed the tower to rescue me...should we go?” He wasn’t sure how this whole “rescue” thing was supposed to go. Presumably, his knight in shining armor—or, more accurately, dusty chain mail—would know.

Sir Tuuri turned to face him. “Not so fast, Princess. There’s a little...tradition we have to take care of first.”

“Tradition?” he asked.

The knight’s mouth quirked into a grin. She still held a section of his braid, stroking it with a finger. “Yeah. In all the stories, when a brave knight climbs a tower to save a princess...the hero gets a reward at the top.” She tugged gently on his hair; he stepped closer. “A kiss,” she whispered.

 

Tuuri let the words hang there, hardly daring to breathe. _I can’t believe I said that._

The princess swallowed hard. “Oh. Okay. That’s...if you’re sure that’s what we’re supposed to…” he wrung his hands. “The thing is...I’m probably not going to be very good at it. I’ve never done this before.”

“But do you want to?” That was suddenly much more important than what was traditional.

Reypunzel smiled, green eyes startling against his bright red face. “Of course. Who doesn’t want to kiss a valiant knight?”

Tuuri, feeling anything but valiant, mustered her courage and leaned closer. “Well...some of us have been thinking about kissing a princess.” She slid her hand up the braid until it tangled in the mess of curls around his face. Her other hand found his shoulder, and she could feel the heat of his skin through the thin fabric. His face was so close she could have counted his freckles. He closed his eyes; she closed the gap between their lips.

Halfway through, Tuuri felt a rush of shame. _I’m ruining this poor boy’s first kiss!_ His lips were soft and warm, and hers were rough and chapped from weeks of rough travel. The scent of flowers wafting from his hair reminded her that she probably smelled like sweat and leather, if not worse. She broke away and put her hands in her face. “I’m sorry! I promise those get better with practice. And, you know, it helps if you’re kissing someone who hasn’t been sleeping on the ground and walking all day…”

Hands closed over hers, pulling them away from her face. The princess was smiling.

“Well, if it gets better with practice, we’ll just have to practice, won’t we?” He stroked her hair back and leaned down.

Halfway through the second kiss, Tuuri forgot about her chapped lips.

 

 

The sunset was beautiful. Orange streaked from the horizon, blending with pink that turned into violet along the edges of the clouds. The princess barely noticed; he was too busy reveling in the feeling of grass beneath his feet, the mysterious shadows that crept from the trees, and the sensation of the knight’s hand in his. Tuuri smiled, and the expression was no less sweet for being seen through a mask. “Ready, Princess?” she asked.

Reypunzel took one last look at the tower, then turned to face the setting sun. “Ready. Lead the way, my brave knight!”

**Author's Note:**

> I know I'm not the first to come up with the idea of "Reypunzel", but the idea got into my head and I couldn't help myself. Also I had WAY too much fun drawing Princess Reypunzel and Sir Tuuri, so hopefully the drawings add something to the experience. :)
> 
> (I blame any and all mistakes on the fact that this was written and drawn in less than 24 hours).


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